Mary Shelleys Frankenstein :: Essays Papers

bloody shame Shelleys FrankensteinUnbelievably Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankensteinat the age of eighteen. This coarse work captures the imaginations of itsreaders. Frankenstein remains one of the greatest examples of Gothicliterature. Unlike other Gothic novels of the time, however, Frankenstein alsoincludes elements of Romantic writing, and therefore cannot be classified assoley Gothic. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist. The daughterof the British philosopher William Godwin and the British author andfeminist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Born in London in 1797, Mary wasprivately educated. She met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in May1814, and two months later she odd England with him. When Shelleys firstwife died in December 1816, he married Mary. Marys first and most outstanding work, the novel Frankenstein, was begun on Lake Geneva in thesummer of 1816 as her contribution to a ghost-story competition. Aremarkable accomplishment for such a young write r, Frankenstein was asuccess. No other work by Mary Shelley achieved the popularity orexcellence of this first work, although she wrote four other novels, books oftravel sketches, and miscellaneous tales. In 1818 the Shelleys left Englandfor Italy, where they stayed until Shelleys death. Only one of Marys andPercys children survived, Percy Florence, and in 1823 Mary returned toEngland with him and concentrated on his education and welfare. The imageof Mary Shelley presented by the biographers suggests an intensely private,imaginatively exuberant, yet also emotionally withdrawn figure, whosepolitical melancholy and strong religious faith are intriguingly at odds withthe optimistic freethinking of her famous parents, and her poet husbandsatheistic radicalism.The story of Frankenstein begins in the polar ice of the Arctic Circle.The ship of an English explorer, Walton, is trapped in the ice and is ineffectiveto travel. During the day the men on board spotted a sledge, driven by ahuge man and drawn by dogs followed by master key Frankenstein, a man invery poor condition. Walton nursed him back to health as the stranger toldWalton his story. Victor Frankenstein was born in Geneva and at an early age showedpromise in the natural sciences. Victor was sent to a university when hegrew older, and thats where he stumbled on to the secret of creating life.With great nobleness Victor created an eight-foot monster and gave him lifethrough electricity.Once Victor had realized what he had done he panicked and left thecreature. When the creature wondered into the city everyone he metscreamed and ran away. Finally the creature found a place to live in a